Dionne Warwick, one of the best-selling pop stars of all time who made famous hit songs such as “Walk On  By,” “Do You Know the Way To San Jose?,” “I Say a Little Prayer” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” is back in the Philippines for a series of concerts that kicked off yesterday at the Manila Hotel Tent, continues today at SMX Convention Center in Davao City, and on July 23 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

 

Opening the shows for Warwick is the R&B-disco group Tavares.

 

Warwick started out as a member of the all-girl group Gospelaires with her sister Dee Dee and Aunt Cissy in her hometown in East Orange, New Jersey. Her excellent vocal quality and elegant singing style caught the attention of songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who groomed her as a solo artist with the Sceptre record label.

 

Her debut single, “Don’t Make Me Over,” released in November 1962, became a hit the following year, while her fourth single, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”  (December 1963), became her first Top 10 pop hit (No. 8),  followed by “Walk on By” (April,1964),  her first No. 1 R&B hit and a million-dollar seller.

 

She continued to enjoy immense success from the mid-’60s to the early ’70s with a string of gold-selling albums and Top 20 and Top 10 hit singles, including “Message To Michael,” “Here Where There Is Love” (which featured the hit single “Alfie”), “Trains and Boats and Planes” and “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.”

 

In 1967, she earned her first RIAA gold single for US sales of over one million copies for the single “I Say a Little Prayer,” while her trademark tune, “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?,” became an international million-dollar seller and a Top 10 hit in several countries outside the US and won for Warwick her first of several Grammy Awards.

 

She reached the top of the pop charts for the first time in 1974 with “Then Came You,” which she recorded with The Spinners.

 

In 1982, Dionne collaborated with Johnny Mathis on “Friends Or Lovers” and with Barry Gibb on “Heartbreaker.”

 

She made history in 1985 when she joined in the recording of the multi-Grammy Award-winning charity song “We Are the World.”

 

In the same year, she also scored one of her biggest hits with “That’s What Friends Are For,” an Aids benefit single that also featured Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Gladys Knight. The song, written by Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, became a triple No. 1—R&B, Adult Contemporary and four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, aside from selling close to two million copies in the US alone.

 

In 2012, Warwick celebrated her 50th year in music with the album “Now,” which featured most of the songs written by Bacharach and David.

 

As of April this year, she is tied for third place with Madonna and behind only Aretha Franklin and Taylor Swift as the most-charted female vocalists of all time.

 

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